Colorado’s Wine Scene Is Beginning To Bubble In Palisade

Forbes Lifestyle Travel Colorado’s Wine Scene Is Beginning To Bubble In Palisade Will McGough Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about travel destinations and the people I meet along the way. Following Sep 28, 2023, 05:43pm EDT | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Colorado Mountain Winefest occurs every September and highlights wineries from across the state, .

. . [+] with the majority coming from the host town of Palisade.

Julia Cavalieri/Tropical Disco Media The 32nd annual Colorado Mountain Winefest took place this month in Palisade, Colorado, and with it came a showcase of just how far Colorado wine has come. While the number of years (correctly) insinuates a decades-long tradition of grape growing and winemaking throughout the mountainous state, attendees of the festival were treated to a celebration of a new wave of Colorado wine, which has exploded in recent years and features brand-new wineries, burgeoning winemakers, and distinct styles of wine. “Since 1992, the Colorado Mountain Winefest has provided the opportunity to sample and enjoy the state’s vintages in one location,” said Cassidee Shull, Executive Director of the Colorado Association for Viticulture and Enology ( CAVE ) .

“This year, brand-new events such as our Sparkling Wine Seminar showed just how far the Colorado wine industry has come and the innovation and dedication of our growers and winemakers,” she said. More than five thousand attendees came from 5 countries and 40 states, a tribute to the growing popularity not only of Colorado wine, but of the host town of Palisade, where a majority of the state’s wineries are found. MORE FOR YOU Apple iPhone 15 Pro Overheating Reports: Insider Addresses Issue Ukraine’s Improvised Fighting Vehicle Is So Slow That A Soldier Can Walk Just As Fast Cannabis Overuse Linked To Heart Failure And Heart Attacks Study Finds Here are the latest trends from the Colorado wine scene: Carboy Winery in Palisade, Colorado, features three lines of sparkling wine.

Carboy Winery Hello, Sparkling Wines Out of all the things worth discussing here, the main trend this year was the emergence and prominence of sparkling wine. It wasn’t so long ago that Sauvage Spectrum was the first to create the market for sparkling wine in Palisade back in 2019 when it opened its doors and introduced its Sparklet – a fruit forward, easy-drinking sparkling wine. Since then, the bubbly-focused winery has paved the way not only for new iterations of its own (such as its collection of Pet-Nats ), but for other wineries to introduce local sparkling wine as well.

“Early on, we saw a need for affordable, Colorado sparkling wine,” said Sauvage Spectrum Winemaker Patric Matysiewski. “A big factor is that the demographic is looking for something fresh, crisp, and refreshing, and because it really pairs well with the Colorado lifestyle. ” Carboy Winery arrived in Palisade (from Denver/Littleton) in 2021 and was the featured speaker during the festival’s Sparkling Wine Seminar.

The talk and tasting featured a variety of sparkling wines from Carboy, who hope the region’s hot summer days can be cut with a glass of sparkling on their rooftop patio. Carboy’s line of sparkling wine goes three tiers deep – Basic, Premier, and Upper Tier – with the latter two featuring all Colorado-grown grapes (Basic level grapes come from Washington). View from one of the many vineyards of Centennial Cellars in Palisade, Colorado.

Centennial Cellars . . .

[+] operates in partnership with Talbott Farms, the largest grape grower in the state of Colorado. Centennial Cellars New Meets Old Other standouts at the festival included the arrival of brand-new winemaker Merril Wallace, who recently took the helm at Centennial Cellars . His first red wine, a Cab Franc, was one of the best young red wines poured at the festival, and a tribute to some of the oldest grapes grown in the valley.

Wallace attributes his early success to the winery’s association with Talbott Farms , the largest grape grower in the state of Colorado. Altogether, Talbott’s grows about a third of the grapes in Colorado. While Wallace made his debut, neighboring winemakers were busy adding more prestige to their records.

Ben Parsons, known throughout the Colorado wine scene for his part in popularizing canned wine via his Denver urban winery, Infinite Monkey Theorem, back in 2010, was on site pouring wines from his new Palisade project, The Ordinary Fellow . Parsons was sampling his 2022 Pinot Noir and 2021 Riesling , which recently received 92 and 90 points, respectively, from Decanter Magazine, which is amongst the most influential wine review magazines the world. The Pinot Noir was the first Colorado wine to be selected as “Editor’s Pick” in the magazine’s history, and since then, two other of his wines have also scored above 90 in Decanter, including the 2022 Ordinary Fellow Sparkling Wine , which received a 92.

“You can submit your wines to lot of competitions and magazines, but only some of them are credible scores, and Decanter is the premier wine magazine in the world,” Parsons said. “We want our wines to be judged against the best wines in the world. We hope this will lead the way for other Colorado wines to be reviewed and for more people to seek out Colorado wines.

” Though not present at the festival, locally-beloved Restoration Vineyards celebrated its 5 year anniversary the day prior to Winefest – a wonderful feat given its challenging backstory . Selections from Ordinary Fellow Winery in downtown Palisade feature several award winners, including . .

. [+] sparkling wine. Ordinary Fellow Winery Cold-Hardy Varietals Are the Future in Colorado, But the Industry Must Work to Educate Consumers Most people are familiar with Vinifera varietals of wine – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cab Sav, etc – and, as highlighted above, they can grow very well in Colorado.

But they can also be risky, as vines can be killed by cold weather. This reality (with many hard lessons learned here in Palisade, to be sure) has paved the way for the introduction of other “cold-hardy varietals” to be planted – that is, grape varietals that can withstand the large changes in temperatures and early/late freezes that come along with Colorado’s climate. Some examples are Itasca (white), Villard Blanc (white), Aromella (white), Chambourcin (red), Petite Pearl (red), and Marechal Foch (red), among others.

You can read the full scoop on cold-hardy varietals here . “There’s definitely a leaning toward being more adventurous and planting more cold-hardy varietals,” said Tyzok Warton, Winemaker at Carboy. “I think we will be seeing a lot more experimental varietals planted here going forward.

” With that will come the challenge of educating consumers on varietals they’ve never heard of, no small task given wine’s already-complicated reputation. But for Wallace, that challenge is all part of the fun and the potential for Palisade wine to be something different. “Part of what we want to do is highlight the 42 different varietals of wine grapes we grow here,” Wallace said.

“[Centennial Cellars] will be focusing on smaller batch, more educational-focused wines, things people haven’t heard of. ” He said he feels this will provide people who visit Palisade a more memorable experience and make the wine region more unique. “They will get to taste things grown here that they can’t easily find elsewhere,” he said.

The 33rd Colorado Mountain Winefest will take place next year on September 21st, 2024, at Riverbend Park in Palisade. You can make arrangements to attend here . Check out my website .

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